Hatching Egg
by Kate DeVeer
Summary: When Team Natsu returns from a mission, Lucy goes home angry that her pay got cut in half, again. The next morning, she is heading back to the guild when she falls into the waterway along the road. Something on the bottom catches her eye. It's an egg. When it hatches, it isn't quite what she expected.
1. Frustrations

Lucy stomped along the edge of the waterway through Hargeon, arms clamped tight across her chest looking very, very cross. The short, white, cone nosed celestial spirit plodded along after her occasionally mewing. _"I don't know why he meows. He's a dog…" _Lucy thought irately. She stopped and sighed. Her anger wasn't because of Plue, so she shouldn't direct it at him. No, she was angry with someone very different.

"That stupid fire breathing, insensitive, careless…" she growled and continued to along the street towards her house. "I mean seriously! How hard is it to control that fire of his? You'd think that he'd know how by now… But no, every time, EVERY TIME, we go on a job what happens? My pay gets cut in half because of his carelessness!" Plue simply mewed again and continued to follow after her.

"Don't fall in!"

"I won't," she called back with a little more force than she intended. The man on the boat seemed realize something was wrong as he floated by, but didn't say anything. As she approached her house, she was about to throw open the door and flop on her bed to sulk when she paused. How often had she come home and found that pink haired freak messing up her house? "If he's in there, he had better believe in some sort of deity because he'll be meeting them shortly." Plue mewed and she opened the door slowly. The small celestial spirit toddled in and up the stairs to Lucy's main room. She followed cautiously.

"Your house is clear of miscreants, princess," Lucy jolted and found Virgo saluting her from the middle of the room.

"Virgo, I didn't summon you!" Lucy quickly stated. Virgo nodded.

"I know, but it was made abundantly clear to me that you did not wish to find anyone one in your house so I checked before you arrived," she replied. Lucy sighed.

"Not anyone Virgo," she explained. "One specific pink haired idiot."

"Will you punish me now princess?" Lucy flopped on her bed and looked at her celestial spirit friend dejectedly.

"You do realize that I'm not actually ever going to punish you, right Virgo?" she asked. Virgo just watched her with that blank stare of hers. "You can go back, thanks for checking my house." The girl disappeared followed by a short burst of golden glowing sparkly light. Plue jumped up and tried to get onto the bed too, but he was too short and couldn't jump high enough. Lucy smiled and picked him up. She pulled out the baby voice she used only for him. "You're so cute, Plue!"

"Mew," Plue replied smiling. Lucy put him on the bed and lay back down. Before she knew what had happened, she'd fallen asleep.


	2. Letting It Be

"Natsu, you should really just leave her alone," Gray offered the unwelcome advice and the dragon slayer sulked. "You really pissed her off this time."

"I still don't understand how," Natsu replied.

"Aye!" Happy agreed. Erza shrugged herself.

"I have to admit, I don't really understand it myself," she offered. "Usually, our missions end up causing more destruction that this one did. Why she chose to get angry now is beyond me." Gray looked at the three incredulously.

"Seriously?" he asked. "You don't get it? It's not just this time; it's all of them. She's finally had enough of losing money because Natsu can't light a fire without taking down a town."

"Can so!" Natsu immediately defended. Erza glared at him before the simple two word statement could escalate to a brawl.

"I think I see what you mean," she replied. "Lucy has complained about it a few times. I suppose this was just the last straw." Gray leaned against the Fairytail guild's bar.

"She'll calm down soon enough, she always does," he commented. "I would hold off trying to talk to her until then." Natsu glared at Gray but stayed put rather than running off after Lucy as he had originally planned.

"_Maybe she's right," _Natsu considered. _"She wouldn't have to work so hard to pay her rent if all our jobs pay didn't get cut in half..."_


	3. Something in the Waterway

Lucy stretched and yawned. She opened her eyes slowly and found the sun glaring through her window.

"Is it morning?" she asked. Sitting up on her bed, she realized that she'd fallen asleep in her clothes, and was she ever sore. "A bath would fix that…" She pushed herself to her feet and felt the stiffness that always accompanied the day after a mission. Groaning, she moved towards her bathroom like a zombie.

After an hour of sitting in the warm water, her muscles seemed to relax enough for her to move around without feeling too sore. She got dressed into her favourite blue and gold strapless shirt and skirt complete with jacket and boots. Running her fingers through her hair to work out a few of the knots, she decided to leave it down. She grabbed her celestial keys off the table and pulled out Plue's key.

"Open, gate of the little dog, Nickola," she commanded. The key shone a little and then Plue appeared in front of her. She put the key back in her key bag and picked the spirit for a quick hug. "What do you say Plue? Go back to the guild and forgive Natsu?" Plue nodded mewing. "You've got such a kind heart." She smiled brightly and hurried off out the door. Moving along the edge of the waterway, she walked quicker than normal. Plue had to jog a little to keep up with her.

"Careful Lucy!" She turned and smiled at the boat man.

"I will!"

"You're looking chipper this morning, figure out whatever was bothering you last night?" he asked as his boat began to move farther away. She nodded.

"Yup," she waved at him. He was a ways away when it happened. She stepped on one of the stones by the waterway. It was loose and under her weight, toppled into the water, taking her with it. She screeched as she smacked into the cool water and sunk under.

At first, she was shocked, unable to actually understand what had just happened. She opened her eyes under the water and saw Plue standing on the edge dancing a little worry dance, but there wasn't a whole lot the small spirit could do to help her. She finally regained her senses, and pushed off the bottom back up to the air above. Coughing she pulled herself out of the water and lay on the cobblestone road for a moment. Plue gently nudged her with his nose a couple times mewing worriedly.

"I'm ok Plue," she stated. She reached up one hand to the sun and sighed. What a bad way to start the day. She dropped her hand and gasped as it brushed by her bare hip. Her keys were gone! She jolted up and looked down into the water. She could see the glint off one of her golden keys all the way at the bottom. It was at least nine feet deep, maybe more! "My keys!"

"Mew?" Plue looked up at her and she regarded him dismally.

"I'm already soaked," she replied. "Here it goes!" Then she jumped into the water in a nice dive and swam towards her keys. She wasn't a horrible swimmer, but she wasn't fantastic either, and she was close to out of breath by the time she managed to get a finger on the small pouch. She wrapped her hand around the top, closing it so none of her keys fell out and was going to start back up when something else on the waterway floor caught her attention. It was a bit of a blur, a ways away from her. She pushed up quickly and gasped for air when she finally pushed through to the open sky. Clinging to the side of the waterway, she threw her keys onto the cobblestone road and tried to catch her breath.

"Mew?" Plue offered. Lucy smiled.

"Hold these would you?" she asked. Plue sat down on the cobblestone and held onto the keys tightly. Lucy swam towards where she had seen the object and took a deep breath. Then she dived down and swam as quickly as she could to the bottom. When she found it again, she grabbed it without really checking to see what it was. She pushed off the bottom quickly and brought the Plue sized object to the surface. She pushed it onto the edge and pulled herself up as well before she really took a second to look at it.

It was an egg. It looked strikingly similar to the egg she had seen in one of Reedus' paintings, the egg that Happy had hatched from.

"Is this an Exceed egg?" she asked herself. Plue mewed trying to get her attention but she was thoroughly focused on the egg. She reached out and gently ran her hand over its smooth surface. While, in the painting, Happy's egg had been white and dark blue, this egg was a dark purple and had strange black markings on it. "I wonder if it's still alive…" Under her hand, the egg started to warm up and she jumped back. Cautiously, she touched it again. The whole egg was warm now. Quickly, without thinking she picked it up and held her arms around it.

"_If it gets cold it could die…"_she thought to herself. She turned back towards her house.

"Come on Plue!" she exclaimed. The small white spirit held tightly, still, to her keys.

"Mew?" He looked towards the guild hall before quickly following after his master.


	4. Strange Egg

Lucy wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and surveyed her work proudly. The egg, now wrapped in a warm blanket and sitting on a hot water bottle, looked warm and she hoped it was enough to keep the egg alive. Of course, she was still somewhat wet. She'd thought it best to care for the egg before she worried about herself. She felt a nudge at her ankle and looked down. Plue poked her again with his nose and held up her keys to her.

"Oh, thanks Plue!" she exclaimed grabbing her keys with a huge smile. "I'm glad you're around; who knows what I'd forget!" She ran her hand over the smooth surface of the egg again and sighed. Her stomach growled and she realized how hungry she was. Heading into her small kitchen, she decided to quickly whip up some breakfast for her and Plue.

She had forgotten all about going to the guild.


	5. It Was What?

"Wow, Lucy must have been really pissed off," Gray commented lazily leaning back on his chair. Natsu leaned over the table, arms crossed on it, resting his head on his arms. He glared back at the stripper but didn't say anything.

"_Had I really angered her that much?" _he asked himself. It had been two days since Lucy had tromped off back home after their mission and no one had seen her in the guild since. He was starting to worry. Maybe she was sick? Maybe she'd hurt herself? Or maybe, as Gray had suggested, she was still angry…

"I can't truly believe that Lucy would hold a grudge for so long," Erza commented taking another bite of the piece of cake in front of her. Natsu groaned bitterly.

"It's ok Natsu, she'll come around, she always does," Happy offered patting his arm.

"She could be a little quicker about it," Natsu complained. "I'm getting bored." Suddenly, the guild doors swung open.

"Natsu!" the pink haired boy in question perked up almost immediately.

"Luce! Finally you're back!" he exclaimed grinning from ear to ear.

"Took you long enough," Gray commented. It was only then that they noticed the grim look on her face. Lucy stormed up to Natsu.

"Luce?" he asked slightly worried and confused. "If this is about the mission…"

"I need your help," she stated. "Like, right now…" She grabbed his arm and started to drag him out of the guild hall.

"Lucy, your hand… What happened?" he asked keeping her from leaving. She would answer his questions. She looked down at her hand and blinked as though she was surprised to find the bandages there.

"Oh yeah," she replied quietly. "That's…" She sighed. When she didn't continue speaking but stared at her hand almost nervously, Natsu lead her back to the table slowly and sat her down.

"Tell us," Erza commanded kindly, pushing her cake aside. Natsu blinked surprised, the red head must be worried to give up cake. Lucy closed her eyes and breathed in, trying to calm herself.

"Ok, here's what happened," she started. "I went home, after that last mission. I was not exactly very happy…"

"That's an understatement," Gray snorted. Natsu glared at him as if he was going to start something but Lucy kept both of them under control easily enough with a glare.

"That isn't important," she stated. "I went to sleep that night, and in the morning I decided to come back here and forgive you for being an idiot."

"Hey!" Natsu objected.

"Trying to tell a story here," Lucy interrupted Natsu's interruption. He growled but remained silent.

"Continue," Erza encouraged. Lucy nodded.

"Alright, I was heading to the guild when I fell into the waterway by my house," she continued. Natsu burst out laughing and Lucy glared. Then he remembered the bandages around her hand and he stiffened.

"You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Not really," she replied. "Anyway, I got out of the waterway and realized that my keys had come loose from my belt when I'd fallen and were still in the water. So I dived back in to get them when I saw it."

"Saw what?" Natsu burst in excitedly.

"Must you interrupt?" Erza exclaimed angrily.

"Seriously Natsu," Gray commented. "It's not like she's just going to get up and leave you hanging. She'll finish her story, geez." Natsu crossed his arms and leaned back.

"Tch," he pouted. Lucy continued her tale.

"I pulled up my keys and went back down for the mystery object I'd seen," she rubbed her hand absent mindedly and Natsu noticed but didn't comment. "When I finally got a chance to look at it I realized it was an egg." The pink haired boy groaned.

"An egg," he stated. "That's it?" Lucy punched him in the arm.

"It wasn't a normal egg," she growled. "Originally, I thought it was an Exceed egg." Natsu perked up.

"An Exceed! That's awesome," he jumped up. "Happy would love to have another Exceed around!"

"Natsu! Listen to me!" she exclaimed frustrated. The boy sat back down. "I brought it back to my house and I wrapped it up in blankets and tried to keep it warm. Early this morning, it hatched."

"A new Exceed!" Natsu jumped up excited again. "Hey Happy! Lucy's got an Exceed!" The blue cat turned towards Natsu and Lucy from Carla who he'd been talking to.

"Another Exceed?" he asked curiously flying over.

"Isn't that awesome?" Natsu asked grinning madly.

"Natsu," Lucy started but the boy butt in again.

"What'd you name it?" he asked. Happy landed right in front of her expectantly.

"It wasn't…" he interrupted.

"Well, where is he?" he demanded excitedly.

"It was a dragon!" and all stood still.


	6. Let's Meet a Dragon

"It was a dragon!" she finally blurted out. The whole table went silent as everyone stared at her. "It didn't hatch into an Exceed, it hatched into a dragon…" Natsu sat down slowly.

"That is certainly surprising," Erza commented, the first to recover from such news. "What kind of dragon?" Lucy shrugged.

"It's black," she replied, "with a few grey and a few white scales. I have no idea what kind of dragon it is otherwise."

"A dragon…" Natsu commented more to himself than anything.

"Almost immediately after it hatched," Lucy continued. "It bit me." She held up her bandaged hand. "Now, I think it thinks I'm its mother."

"Can I see it?" Natsu asked. Lucy turned to her friend.

"That's why I came," she explained. "I have no idea what to do with him… her… I don't even know what gender the stupid thing is!" Natsu looked at her disappointedly.

"It's not stupid, Luce," he commented. Lucy groaned.

"No, it's exactly like you," she bemoaned. "Disobedient and destructive. It will take me weeks of missions to get the jewels I need to replace my furniture…"

"Well come on!" Natsu exclaimed excitedly. "Let's go meet ourselves a dragon!"


	7. Introduce Evrylesce

Lucy opened her door slowly, just waiting for the lizard to jump at her as it had when it first hatched. For a moment, there was no movement and she started inside when, barrelling out of nowhere she was hit in the stomach by a dark blur.

"Oof…" She fell back form the force of the impact and smacked into Natsu behind her. He set her upright again. She painfully pulled the lizard from her stomach and held it up. "Natsu, meet Evrylesce. Evrylesce, meet Natsu." She groaned as she put the lizard into Natsu's hands and walked into her house, barely making it to the bed before she fell over. The dragon and dragon slayer looked at each other for a second before Evrylesce hissed and clawed at Natsu's hands until he let the creature go. The black dragon, unable to fly, dropped to the ground and then nimbly ran over to Lucy and curled around her arm. Any time Natsu attempted to approach, the dragon would growl and hiss at him.

"I don't think he likes me very much," Natsu commented finally giving up and sitting on a chair rather than the bed. Lucy looked over to him.

"So, it is a he?" she asked. Natsu nodded. "Great."

"Come on Lucy," Natsu complained. "That's not nice. It's a dragon! That's awesome!" Lucy groaned and sat up. Almost immediately, Natsu's excitement over the beast was dampened by what he saw. Already, a dark bruise was forming on Lucy's stomach where the dragon had tackled her. The beast was only a forearm in length and pretty skinny, but it had strength.

"That's just it," Lucy pushed some stray hair out of her face. "It's a dragon, I have no idea what to do about it!" The creature crawled into her lap and snuggled against her. The blonde girl sighed and gently stroked the dragon's dark scales. "I mean, he's nice and all, but I don't know what I'm doing. I wouldn't know how to care of a human baby let alone a dragon one…"

"Is it… purring?" Natsu asked leaning closer to the dark scaled dragon. Instantly, whatever he was hearing stopped and was replaced by a low growl. The dragon's eyes opened and glared at him. Natsu slowly leaned back. Lucy laughed.

"Maybe he knows you're a dragon slayer," she guessed. Seeing Natsu retreat, the small beastie turned back to Lucy and clamped down its small teeth into one of her fingers. "Ow!" Lucy pulled her hand away from the creature quickly. Evrylesce froze and looked up expectantly at Lucy, almost sorry.

"Maybe he's hungry," Natsu commented. Normally, Lucy being bitten by a baby dragon would be funny, but it wasn't. He remembered the bruise the creature had caused and scowled.

"_And it bit her, twice…" _he continued. _"Dragon, cool. Dragon hurting Lucy, not as cool." _

"There's a steak in my fridge, you wanna grab it for me?" Lucy asked, pulling Natsu out of his thoughts. He got up and did as she asked. When he got back, the dragon sat rigidly staring at the piece of meat. Looking between him and the steak, it seemed like Evrylesce didn't know whether to growl at Natsu to back off or be a good boy and get the food. Eventually food won.

As the dark dragon tore at the steak, Natsu slowly reached out and touched the scales. He remembered Igneel's scales being really hard, but the baby dragons were soft and almost fuzzy. Maybe it was a newborn thing.

"I thought it was strange too," Lucy commented as though she'd read his mind. "I guess, when they're born, their scales are actually soft. They are a little harder now than when he first hatched though." The dragon, now finished with his steak turned towards Natsu's hand and the dragon slayer froze.

"Uh…" he waited to see what the dragon would do. Evrylesce caught Natsu's index finger between his small claws and sniffed his finger. The dragon seemed to debate what to do for a second before beginning to lick the steak taste off Natsu's fingers.


	8. Butterflies and a Troll Horde

"So, a dragon…" Natsu commented as the small creature finished licking his fingers and climbed back into Lucy's lap. "What are you going to do with it?" Lucy sighed and looked up at her friend.

"I don't know," she offered. "I mean, he thinks I'm his mother, and I have no idea what other people would do with him."

"You're going to keep him?" Natsu smiled at the thought. A dragon as a member of Fairytail. Lucy nodded.

"I guess so," she answered. "But that means we'll have to go on more missions to be able to take care of him." She flopped onto her bed dismally. "In fact, we'll have to go on one right away because I'm broke. Frankly, I'd prefer to keep my fingers and steak is expensive, not to mention my furniture and my rent."

"Well stop complaining and let's go!" Natsu exclaimed with his signature smile and Lucy couldn't help but smile too. She sat up and the dragon, seemingly understanding something was going on clawed his way up her arm and curled up on her shoulders.

"What about Evrylesce?" she asked worriedly. "I can't leave him alone here." Natsu shrugged.

"Take him with," he suggested. Lucy bit her lip.

"I'm not sure that's the greatest idea," she commented.

"You can't leave him here," he started logically. "I suppose you could leave him at the guild hall but who knows what he'd do there…"

"Ok, fine," Lucy agreed. "But then we can't do something too dangerous. I don't want him getting hurt." Natsu pouted for a second before seeing how worried Lucy was about the dragon.

"Whatever," he replied walking out onto the cobblestone street, Lucy not that far behind with Evrylesce. Almost immediately upon walking outside, a butterfly passed and the small dragon jumped at it biting, only to miss by about a foot. Lucy's quick reaction kept the dragon from falling to the ground and she scolded him.

"Don't do that," she glared at the small creature which shrunk back from her angry gaze. "You could get hurt, and besides, I'm sure butterflies don't taste all that good." Then she sighed and stroked the dragon's scales. Evrylesce clambered back up to Lucy's shoulders and the trio started their trek back to the guild hall.

"Hey," Lucy rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

"Gray, put some clothes on," she commented harshly. The ice mage looked down and stared confused as to 'when did that happen' and where his clothes were now, although Lucy wasn't sure he'd find them, not this time, not with Juvia lurking weirdly behind one of the guild pillars. The strange woman had probably long swiped the guy's shirt.

"Is this the dragon?" Erza asked walking up to Lucy and Natsu. Lucy nodded and pulled the dragon off her shoulders and held him out to Erza.

"Erza this is Evrylesce," she introduced. The small creature carefully sniffed Erza before growling a little but otherwise not reacting to the redhead.

"Very interesting," she commented watching the dragon.

"Lucy and I need to go on job," Natsu explained.

"With the dragon?" Erza asked surprised.

"I can't leave him at home," Lucy replied. "And I'm afraid if I leave him here, he'll tear the whole place up. You should see what he did to my apartment."

"Perhaps I should join you," Erza offered but Lucy immediately refused.

"Not this time Erza," she stated. "We're just going on a small quest to see how it'll work taking Evrylesce. I'm sure we won't need the help." Erza consented after a moment's hesitation.

"If you're sure," she commented. Lucy nodded.

"Thanks for the offer though," Lucy smiled. When she turned to talk to Natsu, she found he was gone. She caught sight of him at the request board. "So, what do you see?" she asked when she reached him.

"How about this?" he asked holding one out to her. She grimaced and shook her head.

"A troll horde, no thank you," she commented. Natsu visibly wilted.

"Come on Luce," he started. "Trolls always keep lots of extra treasure and we could keep any leftover. Besides the pay's really good." Lucy held the small dragon in her arms as she watched Natsu practically beg her to take the request. The dragon stretched out his neck and sniffed the paper. When he sneezed, the edge of the paper he'd sneezed on crinkled up and dissolved into ash. Natsu and Lucy stared at the paper and the dragon for a few seconds.

"Just what kind of dragon are you?" Lucy asked suddenly. The dragon turned to her and gave her what could be considered a dragon smile.

"There wasn't any fire," Natsu commented. "Why'd the paper burn?" Lucy shrugged still watching the dragon.

"Evrylesce, just don't… sneeze on people…" she ordered. The small creature whined a little as an apology before climbing up on her shoulders again. "Don't worry; I'm not mad at you." Natsu held out the paper again, the request bit still intact.

"So?" he asked. Lucy sighed.

"Fine," she replied exasperated. "But if there is any extra treasure, I get the jewels from it." Natsu shrugged.

"Sure," he replied before bounding off to Mira to officially accept the job.


End file.
